India’s AI Impact Summit set the stage: ‘AI must be democratized,’ Modi told global leaders

Earlier this year, India hosted its AI Impact Summit at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi, drawing more than 500 global AI leaders, over 20 heads of state and delegations from more than 100 countries — one of the largest single gatherings of AI policymakers and executives held anywhere so far.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi used his address to unveil what officials call the M.A.N.A.V. vision for AI governance, built around five pillars: moral and ethical systems, accountable governance, national sovereignty, accessibility and inclusion, and legitimacy. Modi explicitly called for treating AI as a “Global Common Good” developed transparently rather than hoarded as a confidential strategic advantage by a handful of wealthy nations — language that has since echoed in other countries’ own AI diplomacy this year, including China’s remarks at a subsequent BRICS summit.

Several Indian companies used the summit to launch their own AI models and applications, a deliberate signal that India intends to be a producer of frontier AI capability rather than purely a consumer of models built elsewhere — a theme that has continued to show up in India’s domestic AI news through the rest of 2026, from large data-centre investments to enterprise adoption research.